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This paper seeks to contribute to the English School's (ES) understanding of the European Regional International Society (ERIS) through the work of Karl Polanyi. While ES theory has long been interested in regional international societies, its general approach remains limited to a methodologically internationalist frame that fails to capture the dynamism and historical change of regional formations. We therefore aim to better ground the ES account of the ERIS within a more robust political economy framework that incorporates domestic dynamics with international processes. The article first examines the making of the nineteenth-century liberal order and its eventual breakdown during the turn of the century—the "great transformation", which ultimately informed the rationale for the European Community (EC). We then focus our analysis on the EC's Common Agricultural Policy. With specific examination of sugar production, we explore the tensions and contradictions bound up with the formation of a protected domestic and regional sugar market, the pressures it exerted on the wider international society, and the ways in which European officials skillfully exploited the post-Cold War liberalization of international society as a means of (partially) "disembedding" European sugar. Lastly, we hope that this article begins a new conversation on how the tenets of political economy (Polanyian or otherwise) might, at long last, make an impact on ES theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the prospects and likely future direction of European integration? Will it be marked by resilience and perhaps even deepening integration among European Union (EU) member states, or will it encounter further instability that could lead to fragmentation and disintegration? The answers to these questions are currently unknown but are important not just for the citizens and countries of the EU but for world politics more broadly. Scholars and other observers have advanced a range of arguments to answer these questions, many of which are derived from the three mainstream theoretical paradigms of contemporary International Relations (IR): realism, liberalism, and constructivism. These arguments reveal disagreement both within and across paradigms over the question of the EU's future. While it is commonly thought that realists are generally pessimistic and liberals and constructivists broadly optimistic regarding the EU's future prospects, it is possible to identify arguments derived from liberal IR theory that the EU faces possibly fatal challenges and realists who see powerful reasons for the EU to stick together, while there are constructivists who think it can go either way. There are thus six basic positions on the future of the EU derived from IR theory. This paper identifies and evaluates a broad range of causal forces that will affect the future of European integration. The paper concludes by discussing the enduring role and value of theory in the study of international relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extending cue theory and arguments about heuristics, in this article we argue that in the European Union (EU) member states, trust in the EU acts as a proxy for trust in the United Nations. While existing studies have shown that citizens take cues from national political institutions in order to form an opinion about institutions at the transnational and international level, this study illuminates why and shows how the same is done from the EU to the international level. It further shows that the less politically aware citizens are, the more likely they are to use the EU as a proxy for assessing institutional structures at the international level. The findings suggest that the sociological legitimacy of international organizations should be assessed in a more nuanced manner that takes into consideration regional institutions. This is a methodologically instructive paper, drawing on several waves of the European Social Survey and additionally employing an elaborate replication design, confirming our main findings using empirical data from four international studies, with alternative question wordings, different question order, and different response formats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thies, Wallace J. (2012) Is the EU Collapsing? International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2486.2012.01110.x This paper argues that the conventional wisdom about the European Union (EU) is wrong. It questions whether the EU is now or ever has been on the brink of collapse. And it offers reasons for believing that an international organization made up entirely of liberal democratic states will exhibit great resilience and impressive staying power. We can never say never when discussing the prospect of an EU collapse, but we can make a strong case that the democracies that comprise the EU will continue to find ways to muddle through. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the steady increase in environmental provisions being included in trade agreements to address potential environmental risks associated with increased trade, growing public concern about environmental issues has given rise to major public protests against various trade agreements. However, facing the widespread backlash against the liberal international economic order, pro-trade leaders have yet to respond adequately to the public's concern over the potential implications of trade on the environment. A review of European Union (EU) officials' public communication on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership shows that trade advocates narrowly focus on the economic benefits of trade in their trade-related communication while paying little attention to the environmental impacts of the trade deal. This ignores an important aspect of the public discontent with economic globalization. This article argues that the pro-trade camp's failure to engage the public in an inclusive and transparent debate about the environmental effects of trade presents a missed opportunity that has triggered widespread resistance to trade liberalization. By studying the communication channel, this essay highlights the important role of information and dialogue as a potential response to the current public backlash against economic globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exceptional times call for exceptional measures—this formula is all too familiar in the domestic setting. Governments have often played loose with their state's constitution in the name of warding off an urgent threat. But after decades of increasing interconnectedness and emerging transnational governance, today one sees new forms of emergency politics that are cross-border in range. From the European Union to the World Health Organization, from supranational institutions to state governments acting in concert, the logic of emergency is embraced in international contexts, with Covid-19 the latest occasion. This Forum offers an entry-point into this emerging phenomenon. Taking as its point of departure two recent books, it examines the origins, forms, effects and normative stakes of emergency politics beyond the state. Among the matters discussed are the concept of emergency politics, the historical context of its contemporary forms, the patterns of decision-making associated with it, the implications for the legitimacy of transnational institutions, and the constitutional and political ways in which it might be contained. Transnational emergency politics seems likely to remain a central feature of the coming years, and our aim is to further its study in international relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article bridges the Copenhagen school's (CS) framework and framing theory. Framing theory focuses on how a text frames its topic and is often applied to media sources. This is important because the media often is our sole source of learning about events and issues in the world. This article argues that bridging the CS framework and framing theory allow us to understand how the media conveys these issues and with what consequences. Through the bridging, the article makes two contributions to the existing debates on securitization. First, it introduces the concept of a (de)securitizing schema as an innovative way to analyze the media as a (de)securitizing actor. Second, the article uses the concept of a (de)securitizing schema to understand how contesting frames exist in the media. Empirically, the article analyzes two Danish case studies surrounding the migration movements on the European Union's southern border by undertaking a discourse analysis of four Danish newspapers. This empirical analysis shows how the media can be a securitizing actor, capable of employing multiple contesting frames—sometimes within a single news item. In addition, the Danish case illustrates how securitizing and desecuritizing frames evolve over time and from one case study to the next. The article concludes by reflecting on what the concept of securitizing schemas and contesting frames may imply for securitization studies and other case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article argues that the creation of the European Union (EU) as a peace project and subsequent peaceful change in the region were conditioned on bargains between the U.S. and Europe and between Germany and France, resting on the balance of power. It mentions integrative pluralism [which] accepts and preserves the validity of a wide range of theoretical perspectives. It discusses the prospects for continued peaceful change in Europe.

The European Union (EU) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) aspire to two different types of normative roles in their foreign relations, which reflect the different contexts and goals of their socialization frameworks. The EU, which can collectively count itself as a contemporary great power, seeks a normative role aiming to engage smaller players, often with serious domestic problems. By contrast, ASEAN—essentially a group of relatively weak states—is located in an area where its own security depends on the competition between great powers. Although the EU employs its normative power primarily to shape the political preferences of its neighboring small states and thus construct a normative hegemon in the European periphery, ASEAN's normative influence is more concerned about intervention by the great powers of Asia. Although the EU model has dominated the discourse of normative power, the normative practice of ASEAN may be more relevant to the developing world facing great powers or a regional hegemon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democracy is a deeply contested concept: historically, complex debates have revolved around the meaning of democracy and the plausibility of different ‘models of democracy.’ However, democracy’s conceptual contestability has received diminished attention in the post-Cold War democracy promotion debate as the attention of democracy promotion actors and scholars has turned to fine-tuning of policies through which a liberal democratic model can be successfully encouraged. It is argued here that the focus on the extension of the reach of the liberal democratic mode of governance has resulted in a conceptually impoverished appreciation of the multiple meanings that the idea of democracy can take. It is argued that the ‘essential contestability’ of the idea of democracy is not adequately recognized and tackled, which in turn has important effects for the ability of democracy promotion scholars, as well as practitioners, to take into account the consequences that considering alternative (non- or extra-liberal) models of democracy might have for democracy promotion. To move the debate forward, I explore here, primarily in conceptual and theoretical terms, what serious engagement with the essential contestability of democracy might mean for democracy promotion. I argue that it entails a two-fold move: ‘pluralization’ and ‘contextualization’ of the conceptions of democracy. The latter part of the article examines in detail the reasons that might exist for considering such a move in framing the study and the practice of democracy promotion, as well as the potential dangers that might be involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a survey of the literature on European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), in particular works that deal with the question why EMU happened and, based on this literature, what one might be able to conclude about its sustainability. It reviews the literature by dividing up the analyses into four categories: those that explain EMU at the global and at the European Union (EU) levels of analysis, explanations at the national level, and explanations at the domestic level of analysis. The review suggests that EMU was a particular European response to global developments, which was possible because of existing EU institutions. EMU was causally motivated by a Franco-German deal, balancing national interests. Domestic motives reflect essentially opportunistic motives, and thus, cannot explain EMU. In our judgment the review suggests that Europe’s single currency will remain sustainable as long as the Franco-German political deal sticks, the belief in the “sound money” idea remains hegemonic in Europe, and the losers from EMU are underrepresented in national and EU institutions. While opportunistic domestic motives cannot explain embarking on a long-term project, they can definitely be sufficient to derail such a project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nation-state faces an increasing number of what we refer to as “transboundary threats.” A transboundary threat is characterized by the potential to cross geographical and functional boundaries. These characteristics outstrip the capacity of nation-states and national bureaucracies that were designed to deal with more classic threats. The institutional challenge, we argue, is to build effective transboundary systems for managing these complex threats. In this essay, we ask what role the European Union can play in such an endeavor. We document the EU’s growing crisis management and security capacities and offer an initial assessment of these capacities. We surmise that the EU will play a significant but rather circumscribed role, one which reflects the EU’s unique system of supranational governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyzes the regional and global implications of different enlargement formulations of the European Union (EU) during the first half of the twenty-first century by (1) assessing the consequences of expanded EU membership with varying enlargement scenarios regarding global power distributions, (2) considering the implications of a drift between the United States and the EU as China reaches parity with the West, and (3) examining the implications of EU enlargement for regional stability in the Middle East as a consequence of Turkey's entry into or rejection by the EU. The findings reaffirm earlier results that China is expected to reach parity with the United States in 2025–2030 and move ahead to be the largest economy in the world. The results for the EU show that, regardless of its enlargement plans, it will fall behind the other giants, becoming the third largest economy. Part of the expected decline in its GDP share can be offset by adding Turkey, and perhaps Russia, to the Union. We also find that Turkey's inclusion into the EU will bring stability to the Middle East. Moreover, we observe that the relationship between Iran and Turkey is one with a high probability of conflict and that it will intensify very quickly over time. With Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, this dyad is likely to become more conflictual before Iran establishes clear superiority. Turkey's membership in the EU would remove Iran's growing challenge to the volatile Middle East. With Turkey in the EU, parity between Iran and Turkey would disappear and Iran could no longer project hostility against the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the issue surrounding the enlargement of the European Union (EU) and whether it will threaten Europeanization. Several national and international surveys, including the Eurobarometer and the World Values Survey, can provide information about the underlying values of European citizens, thus offering a way of assessing just how cohesive the EU is as a unit over time. The notion behind the enlargement is European coherence and the aim for economic interdependence.

The article argues that a more traditional intergovernmental model is better suited to explaining the enlargement of the European Union (EU). The EU started as a geographically tight-knit group of six countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Currently, the group consists of 25 member states and will likely reach 27 countries in 2007. An examination of the final terms of the EU membership agreement involving Central and Eastern Europe is provided.